Grass and beet

When the New Zealander Simon Witheford moved to the UK in 2008 to join KWS, sugarbeet played hardly any role in his home country. But then a newly founded distribution company recognized the advantages this crop could offer livestock farming: “In New Zealand, we have enough protein from grass – what we lacked was energy-rich feed we grew ourselves,” says Simon. “Sugarbeet and fodderbeet are a good basis in this respect.” Their high yield per hectare and versatility also made them interesting again for farmers: “You can leave them directly in the field for grazing or harvest and store them. Especially in winter, fodderbeet satisfy animals’ fodder needs.”

Spurred by this finding, demand for beet seed increased year after year. From the perspective of wholesalers in New Zealand, that was both pleasing and challenging: “No one could predict how quickly the market would develop,” says Simon. So where to get the seed that was needed, especially since producing it took two years? The solution: The retail trade sounded out the international market. That’s also where KWS Momont stepped up to the plate, selling fodderbeet seed from France to a wholesaler down under for the first time in 2014 so that it could be grown for animal feed.

Entering a new market with CONVISO^® SMART

Finally, Simon himself moved back to New Zealand in 2017 – with a mission to position KWS on the market. “We thought that CONVISO^® SMART could be a good fit.” The assumption was that it reduces some of the challenges to cultivate this relatively unknown crop, since the system means fewer work steps in weed control and greater security for farmers, even those without any lengthy experience in growing sugarbeet and fodderbeet. “CONVISO^® SMART makes cultivation less complex – and we wanted farmers to enjoy these benefits.”

Five years passed before Bayer registered the related herbicideCONVISO^® ONE on the New Zealand market. In turn, the seed mainly comes from KWS field production in France and Italy. Producing it ourselves in New Zealand is not yet worthwhile, “but we’re carrying out product development here and testing potential candidates for their growth and disease traits and to see which varieties offer the best grazability for animals, which have to get the plants out of the ground by directly grazing it.”

Beet for cattle feed are now grown on an area of more than 50,000 hectares. KWS currently has a market share of around five percent and, together with Momont brand, just about 20 percent last season with conventional varieties from Momont and CONVISO^® varieties marketed directly by KWS.

KWS uses an agency distribution model for sales in New Zealand. Instead of few large orders, there are many small ones that are handled by about 15 fifteen independent agents. “That’s not how we usually sell seed for sugar production, but it has several advantages: We retain control over pricing, ensure that the system is applied correctly and get to know all the end users.”